Shadow Medicine: The Placebo in Conventional and Alternative Therapies

In this rigorous survey, Haller, professor of history and medical humanities at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, argues that the placebo effect is real, exhibits a powerful influence over body and mind, and that Western medicine must accommodate “some blending of the subjective and social aspects of healing.” His call comes at a time of “uneasy coexistence” between alternative therapies and conventional medical practice, and the challenges the placebo effect has on both. Haller notes that half of the doctors questioned in one 2006 study admitted to prescribing placebo treatments on a regular basis, though they may have couched their prescription in an ambiguous explanation of “a medicine not typically used for your condition.” The larger point, he explains, is that the placebo treatment proves “the whole of which is greater than the sum of its parts.” The book is equally concerned with the failure of alternative therapies to achieve scientific “legitimacy,” and the nagging question, still unanswered, for traditional medicine of whether standard random-controlled trials are ever “the sole judge” of a treatment’s safety or success. This provocative book is aimed at challenging the research community, and the questions it raises are important for patients and doctors alike. (July)